Landfill leachate is the percolation and runoff water that occurs from and within landfills. Landfill leachate is contaminated and typically includes dissolved organic matter, inorganic matter, heavy metals and a host of other known and unknown contaminants. Landfill leachate or other wastewaters are generally regulated by federal, state and local environmental agencies. These agencies have declared landfill leachate and other wastewaters to be a threat to local rivers, streams and soils, as well as municipal water supplies and ground water located in the general vicinity of landfills or other wastewater generating sites.
Offsite transportation, treatment and disposal of landfill leachate and other declared wastewaters is expensive and inefficient. Typically leachate and other wastewaters are collected and may be transported off-site to a treatment facility. Leachate and other wastewaters are typically collected in ponds or tanks and may be transferred to trucks that transport the leachate and other wastewaters to prepared wastewater treatment plants. It is the collection, transportation and treatment that makes the process extremely expensive. It is not unusual for a typical size landfill to spend approximately $1 million dealing with leachate or other wastewaters either on or off site, annually.